Public artist Michael Townsend grew up in a military family that relocated often—at least ten times during his childhood. He learned early how to explore new locales and seek out new friends before moving on to the next temporary hometown. His final relocation was to study art at RISD, when he chose Providence as home—and began quietly reshaping it. He founded the Tape Art movement in 1989 and built a thriving practice rooted in ephemeral public murals, deeply personal underground installations, and highly clandestine collaborations, including the now-legendary Secret Mall Apartment.
For more than 30 years, he has created hundreds of temporary murals and collaborative public works around the world, including the 9/11 Hope Project and the invention of the BOOM! Projector. Now, with the success of the Secret Mall Apartment documentary on Netflix, it’s clear that he and his collaborators were deeply intentional about incubating that narrative until it was ready to be heard.
Moving fluidly in and out of the shadows—showing up, making an impression, then dissolving underground only to emerge again—turns out Michael himself may be a work of ephemeral art.
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What’s your current favorite tool or material to work with?
We recently got a laser cutter. Super fun. In between laser cut passes we have been practicing sling shots on a make-shift range in our studio. Also super fun.
What book is on your nightstand?
If Nietzsche Were A Narwhal by Justin Gregg
Favorite restaurant in your city?
Spice Valley is a hole-in-the-wall halal place that opened up in a gas station/donut shop/smoke shop down the street from our studio. Just order the combo plate.
What are the last five songs you listened to?
We’ve been listening a lot recently to the Star Maidens soundtrack. This pretty lame 1970s British sci-fi TV show by some stroke of luck ended up having an awesome funky soundtrack. There is a lot of great music tucked away in really bad movies/TV shows from the 70s. We also have been listening to a collection of albums of world music released by Sublime Frequencies and really enjoying an album of North Korean music called: Radio Pyongyang: Commie Funk and Agit Pop from the Hermit Kingdom.
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